Retail Tycoon Guides
Money Trees One of the most frequently asked questions in Retail Tycoon is "How do you get money trees?" A money tree is a unique type of tree that can be earned just by playing this game and selling Supply items. Money trees drop money on the ground periodically. That money can be collected by any player by simply walking over any bills that are lying on the ground, but the collected money will only go towards the total funds of the owner of the tree. The trees drop a bill on the ground every math.random(5,15) seconds with a maximum of 24 per tree. And each bill is worth $20. Money trees are a kind of a reward system because the more you play and consequently sell items, the more trees you can earn. You just have to ensure that you sell a certain amount of each item that is available in supply before you get a tree. Once you've sold the required amount, you can find a money tree in the furnish tab in the special section. How do I get my first money tree? You will get your first money tree once you've sold 10 of each item available in supply. You then get a tree for selling 20, 50, 100, '''and '''200 of each afterward. After that, every additional set of 100 items sold grants you another. You can fill your entire property with money trees if you manage to sell enough stuff, there's no limit! Money trees are a great additional money maker to help you upgrade & improve your store just a little sooner - or to simply buy more supplies and pay for workers. Plus they look awesome as part of your store! Money Management Starting Out Each player receives $5,000 startup cash when they load in a new save slot. With some patience, it's all you'll need to get your store up and running. Since you really only need three essentials to get going, one Customer Service item, one Display Item and the corresponding Supply Items to fill your chosen display Item, at a minimum, you only need to spend $2,000. Even if you bought the most expensive starter items, you would only need to spend $3,700. So with some good sense, $5,000 is plenty. I just started, and I'm already short on cash! Poor decisions and general lack of knowledge of the game can get you into the negative real fast. There are a few ways to deal with this. * Sell your shelter and buy Supplies - If you delete the walls and ceiling tiles of the starter store, it's an instant $2,425. If you've made any upgrades since then, even more! Spending this on some supplies to put in your display items is a very good way to get back into the positive. However, it's always a good idea to rebuild them once you have some extra cash in the future. * Fire your workers '- ''Fun fact: You can run even the largest stores without a single hired worker! Try firing your janitor and guard first, and if necessary even your restockers and cashiers can go. * 'Restart your store '- ''As a desperate last resort, if you've been only playing for a short while, try loading in a new save slot and making different decisions. '' '''Are You Ready to Make an Upgrade? Before making any upgrades or improvements, ensure you have enough funds to continue to cover restocking your display items. * Estimate upcoming expenses '-'' Don't forget your worker payments. Give yourself a few minutes of payment. * '''Restock your shelves - Speaking of upcoming expenses; You don't want to break the bank only to find you have a few toys and an apple left in your store, without any money to resupply. In summary, when saving for your next upgrade, save a few thousand dollars in addition to your upgrade cost. Making sales and saving is a big part of the first several hours of gameplay. Though saving for upgrades may not sound like much fun, you'll be so busy being smart with your improvements that time will fly, and in no time you'll be a fantastic retail tycoon! Long-Term Strategies You want it all: a giant store with all the bells and whistles, a super cool looking design, lots of cash and money trees. Well, you're going to have to set some priorities as building a store is a process, and you can apply different strategies for the different outcomes. All of which involve making sales. It's easy to get caught up making your store look all fancy, but you should be focused on selling your items as a priority at all times. How do I make more sales? Well, you need more people to come into your store in order to sell them things. * Upgrade your parking lot '- ''The more slots you have, the more customers you can get. You want this to be upgrade-priority numero uno. * '''Upgrade your sign - Though not quite as important to max out the upgrades on this as the parking lot, your sign reduces the amount of time you have an empty space. * Have more items to sell - Though pretty obvious to some, you want to have one shelf of every item as soon as possible. Customers who can't find something to buy will walk out. Bottom line? Bigger parking lot and store sign equals more c''ustomers''. More c''ustomers'' equal more sales, more sales equal more money, just don't forget to have something to sell! If you want to focus on expansion and beautification, it may just take you a little longer to get what you want. However, if you focus time on making your store sell items better first, you'll have more cash to make those pretty upgrades. Gifting, Donating, and Borrowing Cash There is no gifting, no donating and no borrowing any cash in this game. And really, it is not needed. Everyone starts off with the same amount of money. Of which, many, many players have created a very successful store. If completely necessary, you can purchase funds which will be available immediately, and every time you make a new save slot. Whitelisting (image coming soon™) Whitelisting means that one player gives another player control of some of his or her store. Specifically, the ability to access the Build and Furnish tabs, as well as their funds. Important to keep that in mind - not all players are supportive - and it is possible for a troll to destroy a store once he or she has been whitelisted. One player can Whitelist another player by choosing the Option tab, clicking on Whitelist and choosing a player's username. Something to note is that w''hitelisting does not give you access to other player's funds'' for your own store, a''nd when you leave the game the whitelist section resets. 'How do I spend another player's money if they whitelisted me?' * You can buy and sell '''Furnish' items for the other player's store. * You can buy and demolish Build items for the other player's store. * You cannot buy '''Supply' items for their store.'' * You cannot buy '''Upgrades '''for their store. * You cannot hire/fire '''Workers' in their store.'' * You cannot use another player's funds in your own store. How To Become A Retail Tycoon Millionaire A question us more experienced players hear constantly: "How do you have so much money??" "Are you hacking?" If you think about it, being a millionaire is'' inevitable over time''. You are given initial funds to get started. You sell all items for double the price you buy them for, and at some point you finished building your store. Without any further upgrades, and your design completed, there is not much you need to spend money on other then your Supplies and Workers. A'nd how long does it all take?' It really all depends on several factors, here are just some of the questions that you need to ask yourself: * Are you new to the game and need to overcome the initial learning curve? * How much time can you invest in this game per session? * How frequently can you play? * Are you sensible with your funds? * Is your game suffering from lag a lot? If you know what you are doing, are able to play a little every day without much lag, and know how to built an efficient store, here is a rough timeline on what could be possible: * You can get a decent sized store built (and earn your first money tree) within a couple of days, if you are able to work on it a few hours per day. * You can make your first $100k within a week. * And you can be a millionaire within 2-3 weeks of gameplay. The game, however, is ongoing so you can enjoy playing it for a long time. Restocking Display Items You purchased your first display item and corresponding supplies and are now trying to figure out how to get those items on to the shelves, racks or cases. Here is some quick step by step instructions on how to do it, using candy as an example: # Click on Manage # Click on Shelf # Click on Candy # Click on Restock Container The shelf is now slowly filling up with candy, ready to be sold. Fun fact: '''did you know that any supply items you keep in your store's storage units can be restocked by any of the other players within the server? That is without even whitelisting them. They just have to have claimed a plot. '''Moving Furnish Items Sometimes you initially place a Furnish item and later decide you want to move it. You can easily move the item by clicking on Furnish, then the four way arrow, marked "Move Item" at the top right of the pop up window. Click on the unit that you want to move and place it in a new location. You can also rotate a Furnish item by following the same steps and pressing R on your keyboard to rotate. Customizing Your Store Changing the Store Colour Theme Your starter store comes with a light blue colour theme. Add a personal touch to your store by changing the store colour theme. Simply click on Options and you will see a light blue rectangle near the top of the pop up window. Click on it to find a variety of colours to choose from. Make your selection, maybe pick your favourite colour, and close the window to see your store with its new colour theme. Beautiful. Fun fact: Did you know that changing the colour theme of your store also changes the shirt colour of your workers? Store Name & Icon to come: change store name and icon (microk - do you want to add a couple of pic here: maybe show the default vs a customized sign... stepping on art directional territory) Store Music: to come: one ceiling speaker, preset and custom music options Saving Your Game Although your game is set to autosave every so often, there are three additional save slots available that you can find in Options. It is recommended that you manually save your store during game play frequently in one of those three slots. Also important to note that you should let the "save" finish before exiting the game or trying to load any other stores you may have. Ratings ''' Ratings are an important indication on how well your store does. And if there is room for improvement. You can find information on your store's ratings in Manage. Once you clicked on it, you see an overall description on whether or not your store is popular with the customers. Click on Data, and you can see detailed ratings for the following sections: * '''Cleanliness - stay on top of those customer spills. Clean them up to keep your ratings up. * Crowdedness - having a lot of customers in a small store decreases your ratings. Expand, but only if you can afford it. * Decoration - make use of the different items in Build & Furnish. Some of the more pricier items help you improve your ratings in this category. To name a few: marble floor tiles, benches, plants, glass walls/doors, speakers, skylights and large lights. * Selection - variety is key - if you can put each of the different items in supply on your retail floor, your ratings will go up. * Line sizes - do your customers need to queue to make a purchase? Get more customer service items to combat those lines. And keep in mind that registers are faster but need to be manned. * Store size - you have to weigh the pros and cons of spending money on expanding your store vs. not worrying too much about ratings in this category. If you expand too fast you may end up with a giant but empty store. Improvements to your store can be made gradually and over time. It is not a race, it is a process. Just remember to always have fun with your store foremost. Leaderboards to come: Retail Tycoon has leaderboards enabled. Today, Past Week, Past Month leaderboards, player points based on sales only. All Time leaderboard no longer exists. Game Badges to come: Beta Badge, Superstar, Millionaire, Debtor, Teamwork, Laying Down The Law & Cash Farmer Game Pass For the not so money conscious who like to shop and spend frivolously, there are 3 game passes. Nice digital enhancements to spend your valuable Robux on: # Tip Jar - wasat for you ask? Good question and you can purchase it for only 10 R$. What a bargain. # Custom Icon - customize your store icon for only 50R$. # Custom Music - who wouldn't like more music choices. Get this game pass for only 50R$. Beta ''' The beta version of Retail Tycoon was introduced May 20, 2015 and recorded over 14k visits. It sold for 25 Robux until it was released to everyone August 14, 2015. The game is now free to all and has as many as 88M+ visits as of Nov. 2017. ''(q for mic: can the # of visits & date be linked to the RT page so it gets updated frequently?)'' Beta players received a special beta badge and a golden statue that they can place in their tycoon. (I wish I had been there for beta. now where did I put that time machine again...) '''Troubleshooting (this section is in the works) questions I was asked in game by other players - if anyone that created the game can provide some thoughts: ''- is there a correlation between items on shelves vs. what type of customer will enter (i.e. if there is not much choice do you get less of the larger families maybe'' - is AI calculation client side/server side or both? does it take longer if it is client side? - are there any reasons why the AI calculation would loop? i.e. if there is some lag, and there is not the item available the customer is set out to buy, etc. or if there is an obstruction - circling npcs - yes it happens. 'Store Design (this section is in the works)' Boxstores, plazas, boutiques... ...awesome designs, anything goes really. With all the building material choices you can let your inner designer shine. Experiment with the different wall heights and half walls. Utilize both glass and solid walls in your design. And add ambience with large lights. You can also add personalized instructions/directions with any of the indoor store signs. (note from TomLeTom: would be cool to have a couple of images here of stores that look great - for players' inspiration) Where to add ambience (note from iPro: g u can add or edit some stuff if you wish) Ambience is pretty important to store design. It highlights your interior features and adds more detail. Here's how: 1) Above containers: 'Adding lights highlights well what you sell. Doing so with a large light levels it up to grandiose effect. Wiki1.png|Example of the application with "Light" ceiling tile wiki2.PNG|Example of application with "Large Light" ceiling tile '''2) Offices: '''Adding lighting in the manager's office will add great detail along with it. Ambience is useful to make the workspace fancy. Here's two ways how to do it: *'Opaque lighting tiles '- Adding such tiles("Light" and "Large Light") can add fancy details and depths along with it. Plus, who likes dark offices? wiki4.PNG|Applications with opaque lighting tiles. (In this case, I used "Light" ceiling tile.) '''Translucent lighting tiles '- Skylights and Full Glass walls can add a good amount of greenhouse effect. It also adds a good amount of lighting in the office wiki5.PNG|Application of translucent tiles. '''3) Storages: (more to come) Making the Most of Walls, Flooring and Ceilings *How do you add depth? There's a lot of ways to add depth. Consider things here: * Parallel to the store * Perpendicular to the store (more to come) 'How To Make a Store More Efficient' The beauty of this game is that it is entirely up to you what you do with your store. It's your store and your design. So why should you consider making your store more efficient? Here is four reasons why: * Spend less overall ' *'Make more money in a shorter time *'Earn more money trees sooner' *'Climb the leaderboard sooner' But what makes a store be more efficient? Everything focuses around sales. If you can adjust your store in such way that you increase the sales rate, you'll reap the benefits sooner. Here is a quick breakdown by components: 1) Building: adjust the building layout to create two sections. The first one is an overall smaller retail area at the front of the store. The second one is the remainder of the store layout that focuses on cosmetics to address some of the ratings. You want to try and avoid NPCs from roaming the remainder of the store so best to keep that part separated. 2) NPCs: reduce the path the NPCs take to complete a purchase by keeping them contained in the retail area. The number of customers does not increase with your store size. The number of customers are maxed out once you purchased the largest parking lot & store sign. * Customers - turnaround more customers in a shorter time by reducing the path they take from entering the store, making a purchase to leaving the store & parking lot, and making room for the next customer. * Workers - use less workers overall by making a fewer workers work more efficiently. 3) Furniture: * Display items: consider having only one of each display item. Position display items as close as possible together but with enough space for NPCs to pass. Then try and balance the position of higher end supplies with cheaper supplies. But consider placing higher end items closer to the front of the store. * Customer service items: place them along the front of the store near the parking lot. This way customers can leave faster after they made a purchase. And allow for new customers to appear. * Management items: reduce the number of storage units to two. And position those storage units centrally in your retail area as it reduces the restockers path. You can place the office desk outside the actual retail area as long as it is accessible to the manager. * Decorations: beautify your store by using any decorations outside the retail area. 4) Upgrades: focus on upgrading parking lot first, store sign second - all early on in the game. Then later on, once you established your efficient retail area, expand the rest of the land. 5) Supplies: if you use auto-resupply, try and experiment with the values to keep the reorder amount per item at a minimum. This way you spend less on overheads. Here are examples of what it could look like: pics to come - show example efficient retail area layouts pics to come - show examples of overall store including "cosmetics" and show efficient retail are in relation to the cosmetic. Category:Retail Tycoon